When people think of text-to-speech software, they almost always think of Amazon Alexa. However, it’s easy to forget that there are also various other text-to-speech and AI voice generators out there.

In recent times, the demand for AI-based text-to-speech systems has skyrocketed. The reason for this is that it can help people with disabilities to communicate better. However, the increased demand for text-to-speech apps has created a huge number of options for people looking for such tools.

Thousands of websites allow you to convert text into voice, whether in English, Portuguese, Punjabi, or others.

Play.ht provides you with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tool to generate text-to-speech (TTS), which can be edited, modified, and shared with anyone worldwide.

You may have tried other text-to-speech online generators and already know what to expect.

But Play.ht is different.

Prepare to be surprised by the advanced features and precise speech synthesis software that Play.ht offers for free.

In this Play.ht review, I’ll be going through its features, pricing, and more.

Let’s dive in.

Why Should I Use Text-To-Speech Software Like Play.ht?

Play.ht is an AI voice generator and text-to-speech cloud-based software that generates text-to-speech content without human intervention.

This is a great advancement in the field of artificial intelligence and voice recognition because it enables anyone to speak any language they want without needing to know how to speak or read them.

Play.ht uses the most advanced machine learning techniques to generate accurate text-to-speech results (including a celebrity voice generator) through a highly optimized machine learning algorithm that has been trained for each language.

It uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to generate text-to-speech (TTS) output via multiple platforms such as web browsers and apps.

The TTS software can convert any text into audio files while also providing several other functionalities, such as the pronunciation of words. If you are looking for a voice that sounds like a human voice, then Play.ht is the right choice for your business or personal use.

Voice recognition is a big part of AI, but text-to-speech (TTS) is more important. Play.ht allows your computer to understand what you say and then speak it back to you in the form of text or an audio recording.

Here are some advantages of using text-to-speech software:

• It doesn’t require any hardware or special skills to operate.
• It’s way cheaper than hiring a voice actor to record a voice message.
• It can be used by people with dyslexia who have trouble reading.
• You can use multiple languages without having to hire multiple translators and editors.

What Is Play.ht?

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Powered by IBM, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, Play.ht is the next-generation voice-over, transcription, and translation tool.

The voices are all natural-sounding, and their pronunciations are derived from databases of different accents and a wide range of languages.

Play.ht is a natural-sounding voice with human-like intonation powered by machine learning technology where the pronunciation of documents can be made easier by exchanging them with a cloud-based natural-sounding synthesizer.

It offers text-to-speech services and makes it easy to practice English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Mandarin (Simplified and Traditional), Portuguese (PT), Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian (Cyrillic), and Indonesian languages.

The company behind Play.ht is a 100% bootstrapped startup based entirely remote. The team first started Play.ht back in 2016 as a Chrome extension for listening to Medium articles.

Since it was being widely used, they’ve seen a big opportunity in providing Play.ht as a tool to help people create realistic audio content for applications.

Play.ht Features

Play.ht has lots of professional features, including integrations such as Chrome extension, WordPress plugin, API access, and JS code snippet.

Here’s a list of the Play.ht best features.

1. 570+ AI Voices and 57 Languages

With state-of-the-art voices powered by Google Wavenet, Amazon Polly, IBM Watson, and Microsoft Azure, Play.ht allows you to choose the voice that suits your brand best from a constantly growing library of 570+ high-quality male and female voices available in over 60 languages.

AI voices are divided into standard voices and premium voices.

The standard voices are created by traditional text-to-speech software, which may sound a bit robotic.

On the other hand, premium voices, Neural Voices (NTTS or Neural text-to-speech software), are created with a speech synthesis powered by machine learning and deep neural networks. This makes it nearly indistinguishable from human recordings.

Because the intonation and prosody of words are more natural with NTTS, listening fatigue is reduced when users interact with those AI voices.

2. Full Commercial & Broadcasting Rights

With Play.ht, you get full commercial & broadcasting rights for the audio you create.

This means you can monetize your YouTube Videos or use the recordings for any other commercial purposes.

3. Expressive Emotional Speech Styles

As the voices are powered by machine learning, they are extremely natural and allow you to pick the most suitable style for the context of your content.

Some of these speech styles include Newscaster, Customer Service, Chat, Conversational, Cheerful, and Empathetic. These speech styles are available for both male as well as female voices.

4. Create Custom Pronunciations

You can take fine control over pronunciation and change how certain words should be pronounced.

This can include custom text such as your company name, slang words or even digits, cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, fractions, date, time, etc.

All your custom pronunciations are stored in the Pronunciations Library, where you can access them and make changes.

5. Edit Voice Tones

Play.ht also lets you go the extra mile when it comes to creating a natural listening experience for your audience. You can set the voiceover audio’s right tone by changing the voice’s attributes.

6. Custom Pauses

You can further refine your edits by creating custom pauses in the audio and setting pause durations for punctuation marks.

Also, in the settings of your dashboard, you can define the default durations of punctuation marks.

7. Multi-voice Feature

Play.ht allows you to simulate a real conversation in your video by giving different voices to different sentences.

8. Unlimited Previews, Revisions & Downloads

You can preview the audio before converting or save drafts for later.

Because there’s no time limit, you are free to make as many revisions as you wish to create and download the perfect voiceover for your video.

9. Manage All Your Files Online

Play.ht is a cloud-based app that has an easy-to-use dashboard to help you manage all your audio files in one place.

10. Podcast Hosting

Play.ht also creates RSS feeds of your generated audio to help you easily distribute your audio as podcasts to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcasting platforms.

It also allows you to create and manage multiple podcast accounts.